The present invention relates to an information receiving apparatus which informs the information to a recipient and to a computer readable recording medium on which an information receiving program is recorded. More particularly the invention relates to an information receiving apparatus being capable of reliably informing a recipient of pieces of information having different attributes and a computer readable recording medium on which an information receiving program is recorded.
In recent years, in an enterprise, an education organization, or the like, with development of a LAN (Local Area Network) or an intranet, in place of a primitive means such as conventional circulation of a sheet of paper or oral communication of information, information sharing using bulletin board systems by groupware or electronic media such as electronic mails has been popularized. These bulletin board systems or electronic mails have advantages that information can be received at an arbitrary timing by a recipient. However, on the another hand, in emergency, these bulletin board systems or electronic mails may have a drawback that the recipient is to reliably informed of the information. For this reason, in prior art, a means and a method which can cancel the drawback is earnestly desired.
In an enterprise or the like, a network environment such as a LAN or an intranet is prepared, and information is informed (shared or transmitted) by a client/server system consisting of clients and servers connected to each other through the network. Each server is installed on the originator side, holds information on a bulletin board system or holds information as an electronic mail. On the other hand, each client is installed on the recipient side, and accesses the server to refer to information held in the servers.
More specifically, in the client, after software for a bulletin board system or electronic software is started, the server is accessed through the network to refer to the information on the bulletin board system or receive an electronic mail (information). At this time, the recipient checks the contents of the information on the bulletin board system or in the electronic mail displayed on a display. In this manner, in the conventional client/server system, information from an originator cannot be transmitted and shared until the recipient performs an action (start of software for a bulletin board system or the like). Thus, this is a system in which depends completely on the recipient.
As described above, since the conventional client/server system is a system in which depends completely on the recipient, the following drawback occurs. That is, even if an originator holds the information in a server to transmit or share the information, the information of the server is not informed to the recipient until the recipient performs some action. When the information is the information regarding an emergency, or when the information is an important information, the drawback is serious.
In the prior art, since the information of a bulletin board system and the information of an electronic mail have different attributes, programs (a software program for a bulletin board system and an electronic mail program) coping with the attributes must be independently started. Therefore, in order to inform a recipient of pieces of information having different attributes, a very cumbersome operation that the plurality of programs are operated must be performed. For this reason, it is very difficult to reliably inform the recipient of the pieces of information.
It is an object of this invention to provide an information receiving apparatus being capable of reliably informing a recipient of pieces of information having different attributes and a computer readable recording medium on which an information receiving program is recorded.
In order to achieve the above object, the information receiving apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention comprises a plurality of receiving units which receive pieces of information which are respectively allocated to a plurality of transmission channels and have different attributes in units of transmission channels, a display unit and a display control unit which display the pieces of information respectively received by the receiving units in one display region of the display unit.
According to the above invention, when the pieces of information having different attributes are received by the plurality of receiving units in units of transmission channels, the display control unit displays the received pieces of information having different attributes in one display region of the display unit.
Thus, the receiving units for respectively receiving the received pieces of information having different attributes are provided, and the received pieces of information are displayed in one display region at once. Therefore, unlike the prior art, since a dedicated program need not be started for, every attribute, the pieces of information having different attributes can be more reliably informed to the recipient.
Further, a selection unit for selecting arbitrary information to bed displayed of the pieces of information respectively received by the receiving units in accordance with a predetermined order of priority is provided, and the display control unit displays the arbitrary information selected by the selection unit in one display region of the display unit.
According to the above invention, when the arbitrary information to be displayed of the received pieces of information is selected by the selection unit, and the display control unit displays the selected arbitrary information in one display region.
Thus, since the selection unit is provided to select or reject necessary information and unnecessary information for a recipient, necessary information mixed with unnecessary information can be prevented from being overlooked.
Further, the pieces of information respectively allocated to the plurality of transmission channels are a set of pieces of document information, pieces of importance information depending on the degrees of importance are added to the pieces of document information, and the display control unit displays document information having a high degree of importance, on the basis of the importance information, in preference to the other pieces of document information in one region of the display unit.
According to the above invention, when the receiving units receive the pieces of information (pieces of document information) having different, attributes in units of transmission channels, the display control unit displays document information having a high degree of importance in preference to the other pieces of document information in one display region.
Thus, since the pieces of importance information are added to the pieces of document information, and document information having a high degree of importance is displayed in one display region, recipient""s attention to the document information having a high degree of importance can be called.
Further, pieces of attached information related to detailed information are added to the pieces of information, and the display control unit displays the pieces of information in the display region and displays the detailed information on the basis of the pieces of attached information.
According to the above invention, since the pieces of attached information are added to the pieces of information to display not only ordinary information but also the detailed information, correct information can be informed to a recipient.
The information receiving apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention comprises a plurality of receiving units which receive pieces of information which are respectively allocated to a plurality of transmission channels and have different attributes in units of transmission channels, a display unit having a plurality of display regions, an allocation unit which arbitrarily allocates the pieces of information respectively received by the receiving units to a plurality of display regions of the display unit, and a display control unit which dispersedly displays the pieces of information in the pieces of display regions of the display unit in accordance with allocation in the allocation unit.
According to the above invention, when the pieces of information having different attributes are received by the receiving units in units of transmission channels, the allocation unit arbitrarily allocates the pieces of information received by the receiving units to the plurality of display regions. In this manner, the display control unit dispersedly displays the received pieces of information having different attributes in the plurality of display regions.
Thus, since the allocation unit is provided to allocate the pieces of information received by the receiving units to the plurality of display regions, and the pieces of information are dispersedly displayed in the plurality of display regions, unlike the prior art, a dedicated program need not be started for every attribute. Therefore, the pieces of information having different attributes can be more reliably informed to a recipient, and a display screen which is easily seen by the recipient can be achieved by dispersedly displaying the pieces of information.
Further, the allocation unit allocates information displayed in a certain display region to another display region again when the pieces of information are dispersedly displayed in the plurality of display regions.
According to the above invention, when reallocation in which information displayed in a certain display region is allocated to another display region is performed by the allocation unit, the display control unit moves the information displayed in the certain display region to another display region.
Thus, since reallocation related to the display regions is performed by the allocation unit, a display screen which is more easily seen by the recipient can be achieved.
Further, an integration unit which combines at least two display regions into one display region when the pieces of information are dispersedly displayed in the plurality of display regions.
According to the above invention, when at least two display regions are combined into one display region by the integration unit, the pieces of information which are respectively displayed in at least two display regions before combination are integrally displayed in the integrated display region.
Thus, since at least two display regions are combined into one display region by the integration unit, the pieces of information which are dispersedly displayed can be combined, and a display area required in the display unit can be reduced.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable recording medium is provided on which an information receiving program for causing a computer to execute a receiving step of receiving pieces of information which are respectively allocated to a plurality of transmission channels and have different attributes in units of transmission channels, and a display control step of displaying the pieces of information received in the receiving step in one display region of a display unit is recorded.
According to the above invention, when the pieces of information having different attributes are received in units of transmission channels at the receiving step, the received pieces of information having different attributes are displayed in one display region of the display unit at the display control step.
Thus, since the pieces of information received at the receiving step are displayed in one display region at once, unlike the prior art, a dedicated program need not be started for every attribute. Therefore, the pieces of information having different attributes can be informed to a recipient.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable recording medium is provided on which an information receiving program for causing a computer to execute a receiving step of receiving pieces of information which are respectively allocated to a plurality of transmission channels and have different attributes in units of transmission channels, an allocation step of arbitrarily allocating the pieces of information received at the receiving step in a plurality of display regions of a display unit, and a display control step of dispersedly displaying the pieces of information in the plurality of display regions of the display unit in accordance with allocation at the allocation step is recorded.
According to the above invention, when the pieces of information having different attributes are received in units of transmission channels at the receiving step, at the allocation step, the pieces of information received at the receiving step are arbitrarily allocated to the plurality of display regions. In this manner, at the display control step, the received pieces of information having different attributes are dispersedly displayed in the plurality of display regions.
Thus, since the pieces of information received in the receiving step are allocated to the plurality of display regions, and the pieces of information are dispersedly displayed in the plurality of display regions in accordance with the allocation, unlike the prior art, a dedicated program need not be started for every attribute. Therefore, the pieces of information having different attributes can be more reliably informed to a recipient, and a display screen which is easily seen by the recipient can be achieved by dispersedly displaying the pieces of information.